Fare Thee Well

Abstract

Born in 1928, Valentin Tikhonovich Muravskii has a life story that reflects many of the most tragic episodes in twentieth-century Russian history. His father, Tikhon Romanovich Muravskii-Kocherga, a senior inspector for the Leningrad radio broadcasting system and the director of a short wave correspondence school, was arrested and executed as a counter-revolutionary in 1937. Shortly thereafter, Muravskii, his younger sister Dina, and his mother, Rozalia losifovna Muravskaia, a doctor and, for a time, the head of the Health Department of the Vyborg region of Leningrad, were all exiled to Uzbekistan. Allowed to return home at the end of 1940, the family faced new tragedies during the Second World War, including the blockade of Leningrad, evacuation from the city, and life under German occupation. By 1943, all three members had been rounded up by the Nazis and sent to perform forced labor. Muravskii ended up in Austria, and his mother and sister in Germany. Although both Muravskii and his mother returned to Leningrad after the war, his sister married an American officer and made her way to the United States. In 1947, Muravskii was arrested for corresponding with her and given a three-year term in the camps under Article 58. His mother received a ten-year sentence for the same reason in 1948.